Christopher Lasch

The question of the family now divides our society so deeply that the opposing sides cannot even agree on a definition of the institution they are arguing about.

It is the logic of consumerism that undermines the values of loyalty and permanence and promotes a different set of values that is destructive of family life.

The left dismisses talk about the collapse of family life and talks instead about the emergence of the growing new diversity of family types.

The attempt to redefine the family as a purely voluntary arrangement grows out of the modern delusion that people can keep all their options open all the time.